scars of reality
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09. UNINVITED GUESTS. TWO NEW HEROES. THE MIGHT OF THE FATHER OF DRAGONS
Now we have three real goals: capture the northernmost Tower that Rogge sailed to; capture the Rampart in the northeast corner of the map, where a heroine with a bunch of dragons is sitting; scout the territories west of the new Castle.
The lady with the dragons is left alone for now. Wina is sent to the Tower, Rogge hurries to the new Castle to learn GP, and Wind Moon goes west to scout.
A stack of titans joins Wina, and even more can be purchased at the Tower. But interestingly, on this map I somehow ignored the titans. I didn’t buy a single one and didn’t use them in any battle.
After capturing the Tower, Wina joins Wind Moon and eventually reaches the Stronghold, near which stands a hero with behemoths and earth elementals. Another short battle, and the path to the Stronghold is open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUK4gaz1XGg
It feels like the lady with the "Archery" specialization, with this many shooters, is a bit of an overpowered thing. The shooter damage is just hellish. It seems to be about twice as high as that of ordinary heroes.
But it’s too early to celebrate. Defeating the orange hero triggers another event, and from the portal located in the very center of our holdings, increasingly strong orange heroes begin to emerge one after another, each bearing a Badge of Courage.
The first orange hero, named Achilles, is relatively easily fended off by our super-shooter Wina while she is holed up in the castle.
https://i.ibb.co/M9N3vFN/xiedu-22.jpg
The second one, Macbeth, is already a bit stronger. But no cloud without a silver lining. Right at this difficult moment for us, the author gives us the opportunity to hire a hero named Matthews (aka Gelu) from the tavern, who upgrades all our elves and crossbowmen to sharpshooters. We’re a bit short on gold, so we have to sell something unnecessary, including 7K skeletons.
https://i.ibb.co/8jKHnV7/xiedu-23.jpg
To not waste time, Rogge, on the same day (but a little earlier), captures the corner Rampart, which grants access to the Blue Tent. There aren’t enough troops for everyone, so the Rampart is taken using a bearded but quite effective strategy: half a hundred arch devils, hiding behind a tent and hypnotized elves, gradually pick off the dragons and all other enemy units. We get another piece of the Might of the Father of Dragons, plus a small bonus: the heroine defeated in this battle can also be recruited from the tavern.
https://i.ibb.co/tCMv5ML/xiedu-24.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/z6ZFCcG/xiedu-25.jpg
The third one to emerge from the portal... guess who? Achilles again :D But this time his army is much stronger, and the battle is no longer so simple. In the end, the sharpshooters pull through this battle too. It’s worth noting that in most of the remaining fights on this map, the sharpshooters become the main, and practically the only, striking force.
https://i.ibb.co/1ZrcS6Y/xiedu-26.jpg
But before I know it, the next day someone named Victoria appears from the portal with an even larger army. What to do? After struggling a bit and suffering considerable losses, which I don’t have enough mana to cover, I fend her off as well.
https://i.ibb.co/PcZYbR4/xiedu-27.jpg
But I do this more out of curiosity, to see who will come out of the portal next. And he did appear. A monster, compared to whom all those Achilleses and Victorias are like a pug compared to an elephant. But fortunately, he didn’t appear from the usual portal, but from one located on our starting location. It doesn’t seem to pose any immediate trouble, but intuition tells me it would be better if he didn’t appear there for a while either.
Having noticed a certain pattern—that new orange heroes appear after the defeat of the previous ones—I decide to test the theory of whether this fifth orange would appear if I left the fourth one (Victoria) alive. If I understand correctly, the orange player always has exactly 8 heroes on the map. At the moment, these are: a "jailer"; Victoria; three "armor guys" we’ll have to fight later; the guy with phoenixes near the utopia; the lady with angels and archangels near the red tent; and another lady in the bottom right corner. When one of them disappears, the "jailer" has the ability to release another one. There’s also the possibility that with Victoria alive, the fifth orange could still come out of the portal—if Victoria captures a castle and hides inside it.
Thus, I assemble a chain of bait heroes and, through a complex multi-step plan, lure Victoria onto a boat, where she ends up trapped using the same scheme as the "swamp-dweller"—two pits and one hero. In general terms, it looked like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7VeTCpzbg
And the scheme actually worked. The fifth orange never appeared from the portal, and won’t appear for a very long time (until I kill any orange hero). This is perhaps another action that significantly simplified the map’s completion.
Now nothing prevents us from capturing the Tower with the heroine who holds the last part of the Might of the Father of Dragons. Another difficult battle, but the sharpshooters and skeletons pull through again.
https://i.ibb.co/nrPm3Pc/xiedu-28.jpg
We assemble the Might of the Father of Dragons and capture the last castle in this location—another Tower. A pleasant bonus will be obtaining the Water Spellbook. Now we can start the return to the starting location, from which Rogge was once banished.
10. RETURNING HOME. "THE POPE". THE RED TENT
With the Might of the Father of Dragons and two victories over quest heroes, we gain the ability to pass to the Rampart, bypassing which we can move towards the starting location.
Running across the water and ignoring the diplomatic artifacts visible nearby, Rogge heads straight down and captures the first Castle in his path. The pink player disappears from the map, and the population from the castle can join our army.
Slightly above the Castle is a Tower and a couple of Seer’s Huts, but we can’t get to them yet—we need to defeat a hero named August, and that fully aligns with our plans.
Below the Castle are two Passage Guardians, one of which is opened only by the fifth orange emerging from the portal, and the other can be opened for defeating the third orange—Achilles.
The fifth orange never came out of the portal, so our theory is holding up so far. I wonder, is the ability to reach the starting location without releasing the fifth orange an author’s design or an oversight? I’m leaning towards the former. If the author thought that a player could under no circumstances reach the starting location before the fifth orange appeared there, he wouldn’t have bothered with two Passage Guardians. It would have been enough to place just one, opened by the fifth orange. At the very least, the second Guardian would have opened after killing the fourth orange, not the third. That way, you wouldn’t be able to run rampant on the starting location in the absence of the fifth orange. So it seems the author anticipated a scenario where the player could isolate the fourth orange and return to the starting location without "letting in" the fifth monster.
Though I can’t claim that’s definitely the case. Maybe the author really did overlook something, which is quite possible given how saturated the map is with interconnected events.
So, trying to advance in such a way that when capturing castles, all accumulated population there falls into our hands, we capture several castles in one day.
Then come three battles against our former tormentors. They aren’t very difficult, and sometimes we even have to think of something so that the enemy doesn’t die before our army is restored. But fortunately, only one of them has the Badge, and the units of the other two can be hypnotized.
https://i.ibb.co/bKWhJgL/xiedu-29.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/vzzckx0/xiedu-30.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/SBdb2xS/xiedu-31.jpg
We capture the remaining castles, and finally the starting location is under our control.
Defeating one of these heroes grants the right to open the Passage Guardian and proceed to the Tower, as well as visit two Seer’s Huts. In the huts, Rogge and Wind Moon learn "Force Field", and in the Tower sits a hero named Pope, and he is very tough. Stats twice as high as mine; two powerful shooter stacks that can’t be blocked due to the Sharpshooter’s Bow; an Elixir of Life; a Badge for mind magic immunity; 600 archangels resurrecting any killed stack; and worst of all, he loves casting "Sacrifice".
The easiest way to beat this hero is a trick, where you first need to eliminate his shooter stacks. I have a feeling this battle was intended by the author as a "trick" battle. It’s no coincidence that on the way to these territories, you can pick up a full set of diplomatic artifacts.
But since I initially decided not to use tricks as much as possible, I had to figure out a way to break through him in one go. After fiddling with this battle a bit and not finding a suitable combination of units and sequence of actions, I eventually decided not to bother and beat him in a rather stupid way—using scorpid abilities. Although I don’t like battles where you have to sit for two hours waiting for the right morale or abilities to trigger, sometimes you have to use such a crooked and tedious strategy.
I took a fat stack of sharpshooters, a stack of fanatics to take out his titans, three single scorpid units that were supposed to paralyze both his shooter stacks in the first round, a stack of archangels, and two single archangels to resurrect killed scorpids. I also used the Armor of the Damned.
Attempts where you can win this way are very rare, but it’s not something extraordinary. Over the evening, I managed to win several times, and even recorded one such attempt, but unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the recording of the winning try along with other draft recordings. I used something similar later in the battle with Tazar, so that recording can give a general idea of this battle too. In short, all that’s left from the video of Pope is a single accidentally surviving final screenshot.
https://i.ibb.co/PMPPWNN/xiedu-32.jpg
The Pope is defeated, the greens are gone, and I finally get the Sharpshooter’s Bow, which, if not for chronic blindness, I could have had long ago. :D
Next is the battle with the hero guarding the portal leading to the red tent. The battle is difficult, but sharpshooters are our everything, plus we have Force Field.
https://i.ibb.co/D1JxBfS/xiedu-33.jpg
We visit the Red Tent, and now many passages, previously locked by Red Border Guards, are open to us. Meanwhile, Grigari exactly retraces the path Rogge took right after his banishment and captures the Rampart, near which there are a whole three Trees of Knowledge.
11. CONFLUX. PARTS OF THE ANGELIC ALLIANCE
But before heading off to explore the territories beyond the Red Guards, several more battles lie ahead.
First off, to avoid making two trips, Rogge captures the Inferno located near the Red Tent. It has some interesting spells, but they’ve all been learned long ago.
https://i.ibb.co/DLWWXDM/xiedu-34.jpg
Then Wina finally breaks through the orange hero standing near the utopia. Another very easy battle, even considering she doesn’t have Force Field. But her sharpshooters, especially in such numbers, are just beasts. :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nEImVbuuEI
Breaking through the orange hero is necessary to gain access to the Portal leading to the Conflux, around which all the parts of the Angelic Alliance are scattered. Near this castle are also several Seer’s Huts where Wind Moon upgrades her stats yet again. Though for me, all these upgrades for Wind Moon, as well as the previous upgrades in Grigari’s huts, are absolutely useless, since neither of these heroes participates in the later battles.
We capture the Conflux and begin exploring the territories around it with a few bait heroes.
And since one of the eight oranges has been destroyed, it’s time for that very "fifth" monster to emerge from the portal. And so it happens. This opponent is the strongest I’ve encountered so far. Massive stacks of dragons, archangels, titans, and almost complete magic resistance. And he has phoenixes, which is a problem. With the army I have, no artifacts will get me the first turn. But no big deal—now I have the Conflux and can recruit phoenixes too.
Since he crawled out near my Castle, I first try to fend him off while sitting in the castle. But I run into a problem: placing a Force Field in the castle is very awkward, and I can’t achieve that beautiful setup where sharpshooters and phoenixes are protected by the force field. I decide not to bother and instead let him into the castle and fight him there. But then he makes an unexpected gift: he leaves his archangels and titans in the castle and goes out into the field only with phoenixes and dragons. This mistake makes the battle with him so easy that, even leaving half my sharpshooters in the castle and messing around with real nonsense during the battle, I tear him apart like a rag. After that, I recapture the Castle, where his titans and archangels remain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXg2HMNZ4Ig
I’m not sure if I could have fended him off in the castle without spending several hours on it, and I don’t have much desire to test it.
The "fifth" orange is destroyed regardless, and there’s no point in keeping Victoria on the boat any longer. I release her onto land, let her attack the castle, and after a not-so-simple battle, she is also defeated. For defeating Victoria, we receive the Legion Statue, which increases our weekly growth (very timely :D).
https://i.ibb.co/7XDwjC8/xiedu-35.jpg
Now we can start collecting the parts of the Angelic Alliance and scouting the territories beyond the Red Guards.
By opening the Red Guards, we can reach the orange hero in the bottom right corner, the Library of Enlightenment (which I never managed to visit), one of the parts of the Alliance, and two Fortresses.
The parts of the Angelic Alliance lie around the Conflux, and the path to each is blocked by its own Passage Guardian. It’s easy to guess that the condition for opening each Guardian is defeating a specific hero. Some we’ve already defeated, others not yet. Right now, we can claim the Lion’s Shield of Courage for defeating Pope, the Heavenly Armor for the "fifth" orange, and the Helm of Heavenly Enlightenment for defeating the inhabitant of the last captured Inferno. To get the Sword of Justice and the Sandals of the Saint, we need to break through two more. And to reach the Necklace of Heavenly Grace, besides defeating a hero, we need to bring the Cloak of Renunciation.
After quickly running for the Cloak of Renunciation to the Tower where our super-necromancer has been idle since the start of the game, we open the path to the White Tent and the Necklace of Heavenly Grace, after which a new series of battles begins against the most serious opponents on the map.
First, a warm-up against the orange hero standing in the bottom right corner behind the Red Guard. Defeating this lady doesn’t grant any part of the Alliance, but it is required to open another Passage Guardian.
https://i.ibb.co/dJLZ3Gp/xiedu-36.jpg
Next in line is a heroine named Seventh Wise. She has 600 titans, angels, and archangels each, and 2400 wizards. A tough gal. Again, I decide to simplify things and beat her with Matthews (Gelu), who has berserk and expert fire magic. Using the overpowered "expert" berserk makes the battle noticeably easier. For this victory, we can already get a part of the Alliance—the Sandals of the Saint—plus I pick up the nearby Orb of Fire.
https://i.ibb.co/pvhyDjY/xiedu-37.jpg
Next, we have to fight three of the hardest battles against heroes with the "Defense" specialization.
12. "THE THREE FAT MEN". THE ANGELIC ALLIANCE. FINALE
I think for many players, some of the most hated heroes are those with the "Defense" specialization. Personally, these "armor guys" annoy me the most, especially at high levels. It’s understandable—anyone would be infuriated when your 140 archangels can’t even kill a single azure dragon in one hit. 140, damn it, archangels kill "zero" dragons!
And on the home stretch, we have to face three such "armored ones": Tedrea (Mephala), Kazinalas (Tazar), and Goddess of Growth (Neela).
The first on my list is Mephala. For skilled players, this might not be a very difficult battle, but it took me almost half a day of real time. What kind of crazy strategies I came up with. And with the same scorpids, and with dragons of all colors and sizes, and with berserk. I just didn’t try the option with the Sphere of Permanence, though with it, the battle would probably have been much easier. But for some unknown reason, I often ignore some vitally important artifacts. On this map, I only used the Sphere of Permanence once—in the battle with the final boss.
After trying several different options, I eventually gave up on that and started inventing trick strategies. The first was to use the shooting specialist to wipe out all the gold dragons in 1 round. I put on the Armor of the Damned, boost morale, and 5K "berserk" sharpshooters with a morale trigger take down 800 gold dragons in one round. The buyoff cost is around 1 million (it would be cheaper with diplomacy artifacts). OK, I left this option as a backup in case I didn’t think of anything else. I must admit, this was quite realistic, since the map was already getting a bit tiresome, and my head sometimes refused to think.
Then I tried a variant with the Might of the Father of Dragons as an antidote to her faerie dragons. I only took sharpshooters and phoenixes. I put the sharpshooter stack and the phoenix stack behind a force field and watched what would happen. Naturally, that beast starts blasting the sharpshooters with implosion. Fine, I put on the Might of the Father again and started checking how she would react to other creatures. She immediately hits shooters with implosion. Devils up to a certain number too. But she ignores vampires—she casts antimagic on the dragons every round. And I remove that antimagic with dispel every two rounds. A cycle.
And then the real craziness began. I scraped together 700 vampires, took 2500 mana, and rushed into battle. As usual, I hid behind the force field until her mana ran out, wiped out all the gold dragons with implosion, then used destroy ray to remove the defense from the faerie dragons and started chipping away at them with vampires. But I quickly realized I didn’t have nearly enough mana for such an outrage. Even if I eventually killed the faerie dragons, and after casting quicksand tried to run away from the crystal and rust dragons, I still couldn’t kill the rust dragons. I’d need either about twice as much mana or twice as many vampires.
Then I figured, based on previous actions, I could build a sort of "trick" for draining mana. Take one phoenix, block it with a force field, get her into a cycle of casting antimagic on the dragons, and during this loop, drain all her mana. Without mana, she is practically helpless, and the battle with her becomes ridiculously simple: just sit behind the force field and shoot everything with sharpshooters. I left this option as another backup.
Then I finally decided to take a typical army set: sharpshooters, phoenixes, archangels for resurrection, and a pegasus to increase spell costs, and not take the Might of the Father. Immediately block the sharpshooters and phoenixes in a corner with a force field. Then, even if her faerie dragon hits with a ring of cold or meteor shower, at least 1 phoenix behind the force field will probably resurrect. In the second round, I cast antimagic on that phoenix, and then I just need to survive all the faerie’s spells, which will mostly hit the sharpshooters. In the end, only the phoenixes behind the force field should remain, and the faerie should have no spells left. After that, she enters the cycle again: "2 rounds of antimagic on dragons—dispel on my side" until all her mana is burned. The funniest part is that she could kill the phoenix with implosion at any moment or remove the field with dispel (reminder: I don’t have the Sphere of Permanence), but there’s my lone phoenix without any buffs behind the force field, and she casts antimagic on the dragons every round. It’s just a joke.
After that, it was simple. When her mana ran out, I resurrected the archangels and placed them where the phoenix was, cloned the sharpshooters, and under frenzy, wiped out all the dragons in about twenty rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiN2U3aXi2g
After such mental effort, coming up with something for Kazinalas (Tazar) was just a drag, especially since I still had Neela to deal with. In short, another "whatever" battle using a stupid scorpid strategy. This battle is similar to the one with Pope, but that one was a bit longer and harder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ZMIVf0TJI
We get the Sword of Justice for Tazar, and finally, it’s Neela’s turn. I must admit, I racked my brain over this battle almost more than the battle with Mephala, and this time I was closest to the first trick strategy. I even ran to get the diplomatic artifacts and sold 20K skeletons to gather money for a possible buyoff. :D
But first, I took several heroes, filled them with all sorts of units that could be useful in the upcoming battle (there were all sorts: dragonflies, pegasi, mages, all kinds of dragons, scorpids, devils, and who knows what else) and positioned this entire camp near Neela. Along the way, I picked up the Cape of Speed.
The initial idea was to use a strategy similar to the one against Mephala, with the only difference being that in the first round, I needed to wipe out all the titans.
So, I block with phoenixes as a shield, cast frenzy on the sharpshooters, and hope they take out the entire titan stack in one go. Then several rounds during which my entire army turns into minced meat, and as a result, behind the force field in the corner, only a stack of a few phoenixes under antimagic remains, and if lucky, some sharpshooters surviving the magic attacks from the faerie dragons. But the trick is that she starts resurrecting the titans, and they kill the remaining phoenixes with one shot. And even if some sharpshooters are still alive by then, anyone can fly behind the force field and finish them off with a sneeze.
After that, I started devising options with blocking the dead titans with a second force field, so she couldn’t resurrect them. Something like this:
https://i.ibb.co/NmD089b/xiedu-38.jpg
And this scheme would have worked if not for the damn fear from the azure dragons. But as a rule, after a couple of rounds, the phoenixes would "freeze in terror," and the battle would end.
Incidentally, this battle revealed another game bug: under certain conditions, the fear from azure dragons continues to work even after their death. So, a small tip: if the enemy has cloned azure dragons, don’t let the clone disappear after a number of rounds equal to the enemy’s spell power; kill it at the first opportunity. Otherwise, the fear from the azure dragon will terrorize you for the rest of the battle.
After a series of unsuccessful attempts, in which various dragons, devils, and similar characters were called to help the phoenixes, I came to the option of replacing the phoenix with an azure dragon. It turned out like this:
https://i.ibb.co/pPrfYCf/xiedu-39.jpg
I definitely don’t remember why, but this option also seemed not quite successful. But in one of the many attempts, it suddenly happened that my sharpshooters killed so many titans that only about 30-40 remained, and her faerie dragon hit the sharpshooters with chain lightning, and it not only hit my units but also her azure dragons standing nearby. About 20 of them died on the spot. Then she cast Sacrifice on the remaining titans to resurrect the azure dragons. This turn of events greatly pleased me, because after the "Sacrifice," she could no longer resurrect the titans, and the need for a second force field disappeared.
Now I started trying to create a situation where no more than 40 titans remained after the sharpshooters’ volley, after which I needed to manage to kill 1.5-2 dozen azure dragons.
If everything worked out and she sacrificed the titans, then the gold dragon sits behind the force field until the faerie’s spells run out. After that, he passes the baton to the azure dragon. Then again follow the incomprehensible and stupid actions of the computer, which can kill the azure dragon with magic but doesn’t do it, and enters a cycle where it only buffs its stacks with Protection from Earth and Mirror on the azure dragons.
Although, as I understand it, strategies in battles on hardcore maps are often based on the strange and illogical behavior of a 20-year-old engine. In my opinion, this is already close to bug abuse, but sometimes you have to use it.
Be that as it may, this cycle produces the now-traditional mana drain, then resurrection of our own troops, and systematic destruction of the enemy’s forces.
In short, with this many sharpshooters, the battle turned out to be passable in one go, but I must admit, the start of the battle is very RNG-dependent. It’s that damn fear from the azure dragons, which strikes at the most inopportune moment. And what she casts in the first round (you need Antimagic on the rust dragon or Counter, and you don’t want Air Shield or Cure). And what her faerie dragon hits my sharpshooters with. And the wild damage spread of the sharpshooters (you need about 40 titans or fewer remaining after their shots). By the time all these factors align, you could give birth.
In the end, it turned out something like this (the battle is quite long, so animation at max speed):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy44wIWdVS8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFBvUTd1D9U
Is it possible to win the same way with fewer sharpshooters? If, besides everything else, you also randomize a morale trigger on the sharpshooters in the first round, then you could probably get by with almost half as many. But the RNG at the start of this battle is already very oppressive, and if you add the need to catch morale, I’m afraid you’d have to wait too long for a suitable start. Whether you could also fit a ghost dragon with its "aging" into this battle, I don’t even know.
Maybe skilled players could pull off this fight with 5K sharpshooters or fewer, but my knowledge would hardly be enough for that.
For defeating Neela, we get the Necklace of Heavenly Grace and assemble the Angelic Alliance. Then we pick up the scroll with the "Dimension Door" spell, and near the last captured Inferno lies the Fire Magic Spellbook, which we pick up after a battle with tens of thousands of efreet. Now Rogge is ready for the final battles.
Using Dimension Door, Rogge jumps over the Passage Guardian requiring 1 crystal dragon and ends up on a small location where, after a few skirmishes with archangel squads, he faces a choice: take the Sphere of Vulnerability after a battle with tens of thousands of dragons, or fight another overpowered hero and take the Sphere from him.
It immediately becomes clear that this hero is very tough, and I think beating him in a fair fight is incredibly difficult. He has 999 archangels, titans, and faerie dragons each, all stats at 99, and a set of artifacts that make the battle with him an absolute nightmare: the Might of the Father of Dragons, the Sharpshooter’s Bow, the Sphere of Vulnerability, and the Sphere of Permanence.
But since the last battles on this map were already quite tiring, I decided to cheat one last time. I took almost the same set of units as in the battle with Neela. For artifacts, I had the Alliance, the Sharpshooter’s Bow, the Cape and Ring of Speed, and the Sphere of Permanence. I first blocked the archangels and sharpshooters with phoenixes as a shield. I randomized "fear" on his archangels in the first round, and morale on my sharpshooters, who, under frenzy, wiped out all the titans and almost all the faerie dragons (with the speed artifacts and the prayer from the Alliance, their speed is even higher than that of the faerie dragons). I got a bit lucky here, and it didn’t take a huge number of attempts for such a favorable start. It happened around the 30th attempt or a bit more. :D
After that, the battle presented no difficulty. In short, it turned out something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fpuYFVtMTs
I take the Sphere of Vulnerability from the enemy, and essentially, we could finish there. But I figured that with the Sphere of Vulnerability I already have, dragons become as helpless as babies, and thus I could acquire a second Sphere.
You can fight the dragons using only sharpshooters, after blinding them all, or by using the Fire Magic Spellbook to "help" yourself a bit with berserk. Both options are simple enough.
https://i.ibb.co/rHYYjnK/xiedu-40.jpg
We have the Sphere of Vulnerability (even two). We dig up the Grail and place it in the Conflux. After learning all the spells, Rogge reaches the Pendant of Courage and takes it. Victory!
https://i.ibb.co/JF4zv0c/xiedu-41.jpg
So, on the calendar it is month 12, week 3, day 5. The result is, to put it mildly, not outstanding, but given that the map was played for the first time and almost "blindly," it can be considered quite satisfactory.
EPILOGUE
Even reading this generalized and somewhat disjointed description of the walkthrough to the end is a difficult task. Let alone the walkthrough itself, which was an order of magnitude more tense and eventful. There were countless replays, constant searching for the right direction, and feeling out winning tactics in dozens of challenging battles. But nevertheless, the map is finally completed, and we can sum up.
Many players who have finished this map consider it one of the best in existence for the third Heroes. I haven’t played that many custom maps and can’t judge objectively, but I think they are right. The map is truly good. Even I, not a big fan of this type of map, ended up liking it a lot. Sometimes you just marvel at how thoroughly everything is calculated and thought out: objects, logistics, triggers, etc., etc. One action of yours in a specific place (for example, visiting a tent, opening a Passage Guardian, or killing a hero) can trigger a whole chain of events like in a "Rube Goldberg machine." Very cool.
As for my walkthrough, it turned out the way I intended. Without tricks and without using cells with favorable battle terrain. The mini-challenge of completing the map "like an amateur" is essentially fulfilled. But, I repeat, this was only possible thanks to the slow pace of progression. If you play significantly faster, you can’t avoid tricks and "magic" cells.
I can also conclude that an experienced amateur is quite capable of completing this map. It will be tough in places, but in extreme cases, a trick or simply accumulating troops will help. The map allows for that.
All that remains is to say thank you once again to the author for his creation. It was difficult, but at the same time very interesting. That’s all.
Now we have three real goals: capture the northernmost Tower that Rogge sailed to; capture the Rampart in the northeast corner of the map, where a heroine with a bunch of dragons is sitting; scout the territories west of the new Castle.
The lady with the dragons is left alone for now. Wina is sent to the Tower, Rogge hurries to the new Castle to learn GP, and Wind Moon goes west to scout.
A stack of titans joins Wina, and even more can be purchased at the Tower. But interestingly, on this map I somehow ignored the titans. I didn’t buy a single one and didn’t use them in any battle.
After capturing the Tower, Wina joins Wind Moon and eventually reaches the Stronghold, near which stands a hero with behemoths and earth elementals. Another short battle, and the path to the Stronghold is open.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUK4gaz1XGg
It feels like the lady with the "Archery" specialization, with this many shooters, is a bit of an overpowered thing. The shooter damage is just hellish. It seems to be about twice as high as that of ordinary heroes.
But it’s too early to celebrate. Defeating the orange hero triggers another event, and from the portal located in the very center of our holdings, increasingly strong orange heroes begin to emerge one after another, each bearing a Badge of Courage.
The first orange hero, named Achilles, is relatively easily fended off by our super-shooter Wina while she is holed up in the castle.
https://i.ibb.co/M9N3vFN/xiedu-22.jpg
The second one, Macbeth, is already a bit stronger. But no cloud without a silver lining. Right at this difficult moment for us, the author gives us the opportunity to hire a hero named Matthews (aka Gelu) from the tavern, who upgrades all our elves and crossbowmen to sharpshooters. We’re a bit short on gold, so we have to sell something unnecessary, including 7K skeletons.
https://i.ibb.co/8jKHnV7/xiedu-23.jpg
To not waste time, Rogge, on the same day (but a little earlier), captures the corner Rampart, which grants access to the Blue Tent. There aren’t enough troops for everyone, so the Rampart is taken using a bearded but quite effective strategy: half a hundred arch devils, hiding behind a tent and hypnotized elves, gradually pick off the dragons and all other enemy units. We get another piece of the Might of the Father of Dragons, plus a small bonus: the heroine defeated in this battle can also be recruited from the tavern.
https://i.ibb.co/tCMv5ML/xiedu-24.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/z6ZFCcG/xiedu-25.jpg
The third one to emerge from the portal... guess who? Achilles again :D But this time his army is much stronger, and the battle is no longer so simple. In the end, the sharpshooters pull through this battle too. It’s worth noting that in most of the remaining fights on this map, the sharpshooters become the main, and practically the only, striking force.
https://i.ibb.co/1ZrcS6Y/xiedu-26.jpg
But before I know it, the next day someone named Victoria appears from the portal with an even larger army. What to do? After struggling a bit and suffering considerable losses, which I don’t have enough mana to cover, I fend her off as well.
https://i.ibb.co/PcZYbR4/xiedu-27.jpg
But I do this more out of curiosity, to see who will come out of the portal next. And he did appear. A monster, compared to whom all those Achilleses and Victorias are like a pug compared to an elephant. But fortunately, he didn’t appear from the usual portal, but from one located on our starting location. It doesn’t seem to pose any immediate trouble, but intuition tells me it would be better if he didn’t appear there for a while either.
Having noticed a certain pattern—that new orange heroes appear after the defeat of the previous ones—I decide to test the theory of whether this fifth orange would appear if I left the fourth one (Victoria) alive. If I understand correctly, the orange player always has exactly 8 heroes on the map. At the moment, these are: a "jailer"; Victoria; three "armor guys" we’ll have to fight later; the guy with phoenixes near the utopia; the lady with angels and archangels near the red tent; and another lady in the bottom right corner. When one of them disappears, the "jailer" has the ability to release another one. There’s also the possibility that with Victoria alive, the fifth orange could still come out of the portal—if Victoria captures a castle and hides inside it.
Thus, I assemble a chain of bait heroes and, through a complex multi-step plan, lure Victoria onto a boat, where she ends up trapped using the same scheme as the "swamp-dweller"—two pits and one hero. In general terms, it looked like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw7VeTCpzbg
And the scheme actually worked. The fifth orange never appeared from the portal, and won’t appear for a very long time (until I kill any orange hero). This is perhaps another action that significantly simplified the map’s completion.
Now nothing prevents us from capturing the Tower with the heroine who holds the last part of the Might of the Father of Dragons. Another difficult battle, but the sharpshooters and skeletons pull through again.
https://i.ibb.co/nrPm3Pc/xiedu-28.jpg
We assemble the Might of the Father of Dragons and capture the last castle in this location—another Tower. A pleasant bonus will be obtaining the Water Spellbook. Now we can start the return to the starting location, from which Rogge was once banished.
10. RETURNING HOME. "THE POPE". THE RED TENT
With the Might of the Father of Dragons and two victories over quest heroes, we gain the ability to pass to the Rampart, bypassing which we can move towards the starting location.
Running across the water and ignoring the diplomatic artifacts visible nearby, Rogge heads straight down and captures the first Castle in his path. The pink player disappears from the map, and the population from the castle can join our army.
Slightly above the Castle is a Tower and a couple of Seer’s Huts, but we can’t get to them yet—we need to defeat a hero named August, and that fully aligns with our plans.
Below the Castle are two Passage Guardians, one of which is opened only by the fifth orange emerging from the portal, and the other can be opened for defeating the third orange—Achilles.
The fifth orange never came out of the portal, so our theory is holding up so far. I wonder, is the ability to reach the starting location without releasing the fifth orange an author’s design or an oversight? I’m leaning towards the former. If the author thought that a player could under no circumstances reach the starting location before the fifth orange appeared there, he wouldn’t have bothered with two Passage Guardians. It would have been enough to place just one, opened by the fifth orange. At the very least, the second Guardian would have opened after killing the fourth orange, not the third. That way, you wouldn’t be able to run rampant on the starting location in the absence of the fifth orange. So it seems the author anticipated a scenario where the player could isolate the fourth orange and return to the starting location without "letting in" the fifth monster.
Though I can’t claim that’s definitely the case. Maybe the author really did overlook something, which is quite possible given how saturated the map is with interconnected events.
So, trying to advance in such a way that when capturing castles, all accumulated population there falls into our hands, we capture several castles in one day.
Then come three battles against our former tormentors. They aren’t very difficult, and sometimes we even have to think of something so that the enemy doesn’t die before our army is restored. But fortunately, only one of them has the Badge, and the units of the other two can be hypnotized.
https://i.ibb.co/bKWhJgL/xiedu-29.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/vzzckx0/xiedu-30.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/SBdb2xS/xiedu-31.jpg
We capture the remaining castles, and finally the starting location is under our control.
Defeating one of these heroes grants the right to open the Passage Guardian and proceed to the Tower, as well as visit two Seer’s Huts. In the huts, Rogge and Wind Moon learn "Force Field", and in the Tower sits a hero named Pope, and he is very tough. Stats twice as high as mine; two powerful shooter stacks that can’t be blocked due to the Sharpshooter’s Bow; an Elixir of Life; a Badge for mind magic immunity; 600 archangels resurrecting any killed stack; and worst of all, he loves casting "Sacrifice".
The easiest way to beat this hero is a trick, where you first need to eliminate his shooter stacks. I have a feeling this battle was intended by the author as a "trick" battle. It’s no coincidence that on the way to these territories, you can pick up a full set of diplomatic artifacts.
But since I initially decided not to use tricks as much as possible, I had to figure out a way to break through him in one go. After fiddling with this battle a bit and not finding a suitable combination of units and sequence of actions, I eventually decided not to bother and beat him in a rather stupid way—using scorpid abilities. Although I don’t like battles where you have to sit for two hours waiting for the right morale or abilities to trigger, sometimes you have to use such a crooked and tedious strategy.
I took a fat stack of sharpshooters, a stack of fanatics to take out his titans, three single scorpid units that were supposed to paralyze both his shooter stacks in the first round, a stack of archangels, and two single archangels to resurrect killed scorpids. I also used the Armor of the Damned.
Attempts where you can win this way are very rare, but it’s not something extraordinary. Over the evening, I managed to win several times, and even recorded one such attempt, but unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the recording of the winning try along with other draft recordings. I used something similar later in the battle with Tazar, so that recording can give a general idea of this battle too. In short, all that’s left from the video of Pope is a single accidentally surviving final screenshot.
https://i.ibb.co/PMPPWNN/xiedu-32.jpg
The Pope is defeated, the greens are gone, and I finally get the Sharpshooter’s Bow, which, if not for chronic blindness, I could have had long ago. :D
Next is the battle with the hero guarding the portal leading to the red tent. The battle is difficult, but sharpshooters are our everything, plus we have Force Field.
https://i.ibb.co/D1JxBfS/xiedu-33.jpg
We visit the Red Tent, and now many passages, previously locked by Red Border Guards, are open to us. Meanwhile, Grigari exactly retraces the path Rogge took right after his banishment and captures the Rampart, near which there are a whole three Trees of Knowledge.
11. CONFLUX. PARTS OF THE ANGELIC ALLIANCE
But before heading off to explore the territories beyond the Red Guards, several more battles lie ahead.
First off, to avoid making two trips, Rogge captures the Inferno located near the Red Tent. It has some interesting spells, but they’ve all been learned long ago.
https://i.ibb.co/DLWWXDM/xiedu-34.jpg
Then Wina finally breaks through the orange hero standing near the utopia. Another very easy battle, even considering she doesn’t have Force Field. But her sharpshooters, especially in such numbers, are just beasts. :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nEImVbuuEI
Breaking through the orange hero is necessary to gain access to the Portal leading to the Conflux, around which all the parts of the Angelic Alliance are scattered. Near this castle are also several Seer’s Huts where Wind Moon upgrades her stats yet again. Though for me, all these upgrades for Wind Moon, as well as the previous upgrades in Grigari’s huts, are absolutely useless, since neither of these heroes participates in the later battles.
We capture the Conflux and begin exploring the territories around it with a few bait heroes.
And since one of the eight oranges has been destroyed, it’s time for that very "fifth" monster to emerge from the portal. And so it happens. This opponent is the strongest I’ve encountered so far. Massive stacks of dragons, archangels, titans, and almost complete magic resistance. And he has phoenixes, which is a problem. With the army I have, no artifacts will get me the first turn. But no big deal—now I have the Conflux and can recruit phoenixes too.
Since he crawled out near my Castle, I first try to fend him off while sitting in the castle. But I run into a problem: placing a Force Field in the castle is very awkward, and I can’t achieve that beautiful setup where sharpshooters and phoenixes are protected by the force field. I decide not to bother and instead let him into the castle and fight him there. But then he makes an unexpected gift: he leaves his archangels and titans in the castle and goes out into the field only with phoenixes and dragons. This mistake makes the battle with him so easy that, even leaving half my sharpshooters in the castle and messing around with real nonsense during the battle, I tear him apart like a rag. After that, I recapture the Castle, where his titans and archangels remain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXg2HMNZ4Ig
I’m not sure if I could have fended him off in the castle without spending several hours on it, and I don’t have much desire to test it.
The "fifth" orange is destroyed regardless, and there’s no point in keeping Victoria on the boat any longer. I release her onto land, let her attack the castle, and after a not-so-simple battle, she is also defeated. For defeating Victoria, we receive the Legion Statue, which increases our weekly growth (very timely :D).
https://i.ibb.co/7XDwjC8/xiedu-35.jpg
Now we can start collecting the parts of the Angelic Alliance and scouting the territories beyond the Red Guards.
By opening the Red Guards, we can reach the orange hero in the bottom right corner, the Library of Enlightenment (which I never managed to visit), one of the parts of the Alliance, and two Fortresses.
The parts of the Angelic Alliance lie around the Conflux, and the path to each is blocked by its own Passage Guardian. It’s easy to guess that the condition for opening each Guardian is defeating a specific hero. Some we’ve already defeated, others not yet. Right now, we can claim the Lion’s Shield of Courage for defeating Pope, the Heavenly Armor for the "fifth" orange, and the Helm of Heavenly Enlightenment for defeating the inhabitant of the last captured Inferno. To get the Sword of Justice and the Sandals of the Saint, we need to break through two more. And to reach the Necklace of Heavenly Grace, besides defeating a hero, we need to bring the Cloak of Renunciation.
After quickly running for the Cloak of Renunciation to the Tower where our super-necromancer has been idle since the start of the game, we open the path to the White Tent and the Necklace of Heavenly Grace, after which a new series of battles begins against the most serious opponents on the map.
First, a warm-up against the orange hero standing in the bottom right corner behind the Red Guard. Defeating this lady doesn’t grant any part of the Alliance, but it is required to open another Passage Guardian.
https://i.ibb.co/dJLZ3Gp/xiedu-36.jpg
Next in line is a heroine named Seventh Wise. She has 600 titans, angels, and archangels each, and 2400 wizards. A tough gal. Again, I decide to simplify things and beat her with Matthews (Gelu), who has berserk and expert fire magic. Using the overpowered "expert" berserk makes the battle noticeably easier. For this victory, we can already get a part of the Alliance—the Sandals of the Saint—plus I pick up the nearby Orb of Fire.
https://i.ibb.co/pvhyDjY/xiedu-37.jpg
Next, we have to fight three of the hardest battles against heroes with the "Defense" specialization.
12. "THE THREE FAT MEN". THE ANGELIC ALLIANCE. FINALE
I think for many players, some of the most hated heroes are those with the "Defense" specialization. Personally, these "armor guys" annoy me the most, especially at high levels. It’s understandable—anyone would be infuriated when your 140 archangels can’t even kill a single azure dragon in one hit. 140, damn it, archangels kill "zero" dragons!
And on the home stretch, we have to face three such "armored ones": Tedrea (Mephala), Kazinalas (Tazar), and Goddess of Growth (Neela).
The first on my list is Mephala. For skilled players, this might not be a very difficult battle, but it took me almost half a day of real time. What kind of crazy strategies I came up with. And with the same scorpids, and with dragons of all colors and sizes, and with berserk. I just didn’t try the option with the Sphere of Permanence, though with it, the battle would probably have been much easier. But for some unknown reason, I often ignore some vitally important artifacts. On this map, I only used the Sphere of Permanence once—in the battle with the final boss.
After trying several different options, I eventually gave up on that and started inventing trick strategies. The first was to use the shooting specialist to wipe out all the gold dragons in 1 round. I put on the Armor of the Damned, boost morale, and 5K "berserk" sharpshooters with a morale trigger take down 800 gold dragons in one round. The buyoff cost is around 1 million (it would be cheaper with diplomacy artifacts). OK, I left this option as a backup in case I didn’t think of anything else. I must admit, this was quite realistic, since the map was already getting a bit tiresome, and my head sometimes refused to think.
Then I tried a variant with the Might of the Father of Dragons as an antidote to her faerie dragons. I only took sharpshooters and phoenixes. I put the sharpshooter stack and the phoenix stack behind a force field and watched what would happen. Naturally, that beast starts blasting the sharpshooters with implosion. Fine, I put on the Might of the Father again and started checking how she would react to other creatures. She immediately hits shooters with implosion. Devils up to a certain number too. But she ignores vampires—she casts antimagic on the dragons every round. And I remove that antimagic with dispel every two rounds. A cycle.
And then the real craziness began. I scraped together 700 vampires, took 2500 mana, and rushed into battle. As usual, I hid behind the force field until her mana ran out, wiped out all the gold dragons with implosion, then used destroy ray to remove the defense from the faerie dragons and started chipping away at them with vampires. But I quickly realized I didn’t have nearly enough mana for such an outrage. Even if I eventually killed the faerie dragons, and after casting quicksand tried to run away from the crystal and rust dragons, I still couldn’t kill the rust dragons. I’d need either about twice as much mana or twice as many vampires.
Then I figured, based on previous actions, I could build a sort of "trick" for draining mana. Take one phoenix, block it with a force field, get her into a cycle of casting antimagic on the dragons, and during this loop, drain all her mana. Without mana, she is practically helpless, and the battle with her becomes ridiculously simple: just sit behind the force field and shoot everything with sharpshooters. I left this option as another backup.
Then I finally decided to take a typical army set: sharpshooters, phoenixes, archangels for resurrection, and a pegasus to increase spell costs, and not take the Might of the Father. Immediately block the sharpshooters and phoenixes in a corner with a force field. Then, even if her faerie dragon hits with a ring of cold or meteor shower, at least 1 phoenix behind the force field will probably resurrect. In the second round, I cast antimagic on that phoenix, and then I just need to survive all the faerie’s spells, which will mostly hit the sharpshooters. In the end, only the phoenixes behind the force field should remain, and the faerie should have no spells left. After that, she enters the cycle again: "2 rounds of antimagic on dragons—dispel on my side" until all her mana is burned. The funniest part is that she could kill the phoenix with implosion at any moment or remove the field with dispel (reminder: I don’t have the Sphere of Permanence), but there’s my lone phoenix without any buffs behind the force field, and she casts antimagic on the dragons every round. It’s just a joke.
After that, it was simple. When her mana ran out, I resurrected the archangels and placed them where the phoenix was, cloned the sharpshooters, and under frenzy, wiped out all the dragons in about twenty rounds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiN2U3aXi2g
After such mental effort, coming up with something for Kazinalas (Tazar) was just a drag, especially since I still had Neela to deal with. In short, another "whatever" battle using a stupid scorpid strategy. This battle is similar to the one with Pope, but that one was a bit longer and harder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2ZMIVf0TJI
We get the Sword of Justice for Tazar, and finally, it’s Neela’s turn. I must admit, I racked my brain over this battle almost more than the battle with Mephala, and this time I was closest to the first trick strategy. I even ran to get the diplomatic artifacts and sold 20K skeletons to gather money for a possible buyoff. :D
But first, I took several heroes, filled them with all sorts of units that could be useful in the upcoming battle (there were all sorts: dragonflies, pegasi, mages, all kinds of dragons, scorpids, devils, and who knows what else) and positioned this entire camp near Neela. Along the way, I picked up the Cape of Speed.
The initial idea was to use a strategy similar to the one against Mephala, with the only difference being that in the first round, I needed to wipe out all the titans.
So, I block with phoenixes as a shield, cast frenzy on the sharpshooters, and hope they take out the entire titan stack in one go. Then several rounds during which my entire army turns into minced meat, and as a result, behind the force field in the corner, only a stack of a few phoenixes under antimagic remains, and if lucky, some sharpshooters surviving the magic attacks from the faerie dragons. But the trick is that she starts resurrecting the titans, and they kill the remaining phoenixes with one shot. And even if some sharpshooters are still alive by then, anyone can fly behind the force field and finish them off with a sneeze.
After that, I started devising options with blocking the dead titans with a second force field, so she couldn’t resurrect them. Something like this:
https://i.ibb.co/NmD089b/xiedu-38.jpg
And this scheme would have worked if not for the damn fear from the azure dragons. But as a rule, after a couple of rounds, the phoenixes would "freeze in terror," and the battle would end.
Incidentally, this battle revealed another game bug: under certain conditions, the fear from azure dragons continues to work even after their death. So, a small tip: if the enemy has cloned azure dragons, don’t let the clone disappear after a number of rounds equal to the enemy’s spell power; kill it at the first opportunity. Otherwise, the fear from the azure dragon will terrorize you for the rest of the battle.
After a series of unsuccessful attempts, in which various dragons, devils, and similar characters were called to help the phoenixes, I came to the option of replacing the phoenix with an azure dragon. It turned out like this:
https://i.ibb.co/pPrfYCf/xiedu-39.jpg
I definitely don’t remember why, but this option also seemed not quite successful. But in one of the many attempts, it suddenly happened that my sharpshooters killed so many titans that only about 30-40 remained, and her faerie dragon hit the sharpshooters with chain lightning, and it not only hit my units but also her azure dragons standing nearby. About 20 of them died on the spot. Then she cast Sacrifice on the remaining titans to resurrect the azure dragons. This turn of events greatly pleased me, because after the "Sacrifice," she could no longer resurrect the titans, and the need for a second force field disappeared.
Now I started trying to create a situation where no more than 40 titans remained after the sharpshooters’ volley, after which I needed to manage to kill 1.5-2 dozen azure dragons.
If everything worked out and she sacrificed the titans, then the gold dragon sits behind the force field until the faerie’s spells run out. After that, he passes the baton to the azure dragon. Then again follow the incomprehensible and stupid actions of the computer, which can kill the azure dragon with magic but doesn’t do it, and enters a cycle where it only buffs its stacks with Protection from Earth and Mirror on the azure dragons.
Although, as I understand it, strategies in battles on hardcore maps are often based on the strange and illogical behavior of a 20-year-old engine. In my opinion, this is already close to bug abuse, but sometimes you have to use it.
Be that as it may, this cycle produces the now-traditional mana drain, then resurrection of our own troops, and systematic destruction of the enemy’s forces.
In short, with this many sharpshooters, the battle turned out to be passable in one go, but I must admit, the start of the battle is very RNG-dependent. It’s that damn fear from the azure dragons, which strikes at the most inopportune moment. And what she casts in the first round (you need Antimagic on the rust dragon or Counter, and you don’t want Air Shield or Cure). And what her faerie dragon hits my sharpshooters with. And the wild damage spread of the sharpshooters (you need about 40 titans or fewer remaining after their shots). By the time all these factors align, you could give birth.
In the end, it turned out something like this (the battle is quite long, so animation at max speed):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy44wIWdVS8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFBvUTd1D9U
Is it possible to win the same way with fewer sharpshooters? If, besides everything else, you also randomize a morale trigger on the sharpshooters in the first round, then you could probably get by with almost half as many. But the RNG at the start of this battle is already very oppressive, and if you add the need to catch morale, I’m afraid you’d have to wait too long for a suitable start. Whether you could also fit a ghost dragon with its "aging" into this battle, I don’t even know.
Maybe skilled players could pull off this fight with 5K sharpshooters or fewer, but my knowledge would hardly be enough for that.
For defeating Neela, we get the Necklace of Heavenly Grace and assemble the Angelic Alliance. Then we pick up the scroll with the "Dimension Door" spell, and near the last captured Inferno lies the Fire Magic Spellbook, which we pick up after a battle with tens of thousands of efreet. Now Rogge is ready for the final battles.
Using Dimension Door, Rogge jumps over the Passage Guardian requiring 1 crystal dragon and ends up on a small location where, after a few skirmishes with archangel squads, he faces a choice: take the Sphere of Vulnerability after a battle with tens of thousands of dragons, or fight another overpowered hero and take the Sphere from him.
It immediately becomes clear that this hero is very tough, and I think beating him in a fair fight is incredibly difficult. He has 999 archangels, titans, and faerie dragons each, all stats at 99, and a set of artifacts that make the battle with him an absolute nightmare: the Might of the Father of Dragons, the Sharpshooter’s Bow, the Sphere of Vulnerability, and the Sphere of Permanence.
But since the last battles on this map were already quite tiring, I decided to cheat one last time. I took almost the same set of units as in the battle with Neela. For artifacts, I had the Alliance, the Sharpshooter’s Bow, the Cape and Ring of Speed, and the Sphere of Permanence. I first blocked the archangels and sharpshooters with phoenixes as a shield. I randomized "fear" on his archangels in the first round, and morale on my sharpshooters, who, under frenzy, wiped out all the titans and almost all the faerie dragons (with the speed artifacts and the prayer from the Alliance, their speed is even higher than that of the faerie dragons). I got a bit lucky here, and it didn’t take a huge number of attempts for such a favorable start. It happened around the 30th attempt or a bit more. :D
After that, the battle presented no difficulty. In short, it turned out something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fpuYFVtMTs
I take the Sphere of Vulnerability from the enemy, and essentially, we could finish there. But I figured that with the Sphere of Vulnerability I already have, dragons become as helpless as babies, and thus I could acquire a second Sphere.
You can fight the dragons using only sharpshooters, after blinding them all, or by using the Fire Magic Spellbook to "help" yourself a bit with berserk. Both options are simple enough.
https://i.ibb.co/rHYYjnK/xiedu-40.jpg
We have the Sphere of Vulnerability (even two). We dig up the Grail and place it in the Conflux. After learning all the spells, Rogge reaches the Pendant of Courage and takes it. Victory!
https://i.ibb.co/JF4zv0c/xiedu-41.jpg
So, on the calendar it is month 12, week 3, day 5. The result is, to put it mildly, not outstanding, but given that the map was played for the first time and almost "blindly," it can be considered quite satisfactory.
EPILOGUE
Even reading this generalized and somewhat disjointed description of the walkthrough to the end is a difficult task. Let alone the walkthrough itself, which was an order of magnitude more tense and eventful. There were countless replays, constant searching for the right direction, and feeling out winning tactics in dozens of challenging battles. But nevertheless, the map is finally completed, and we can sum up.
Many players who have finished this map consider it one of the best in existence for the third Heroes. I haven’t played that many custom maps and can’t judge objectively, but I think they are right. The map is truly good. Even I, not a big fan of this type of map, ended up liking it a lot. Sometimes you just marvel at how thoroughly everything is calculated and thought out: objects, logistics, triggers, etc., etc. One action of yours in a specific place (for example, visiting a tent, opening a Passage Guardian, or killing a hero) can trigger a whole chain of events like in a "Rube Goldberg machine." Very cool.
As for my walkthrough, it turned out the way I intended. Without tricks and without using cells with favorable battle terrain. The mini-challenge of completing the map "like an amateur" is essentially fulfilled. But, I repeat, this was only possible thanks to the slow pace of progression. If you play significantly faster, you can’t avoid tricks and "magic" cells.
I can also conclude that an experienced amateur is quite capable of completing this map. It will be tough in places, but in extreme cases, a trick or simply accumulating troops will help. The map allows for that.
All that remains is to say thank you once again to the author for his creation. It was difficult, but at the same time very interesting. That’s all.